The City of Pitt Meadows has moved to remove several beavers who dammed a section of the Katzie Slough before they cause a flood.
There could be four or more beavers in the channel, chewing trees along the banks and piling logs in the water to construct .
“I really don’t know how many are out there,” said city operations superintendent Randy Evans.
City staff usually discourage the beavers from building by tearing down their dams ,but this particular colony has been persistent and refuses to move on.
“They build their dams, we tear it down. They build their dams, we tear it down,” says Evans.
“They are bad for us in Pitt Meadow because of our shallow drainage system, because everything is so flat. Every time they build a dam, it has huge impacts on our drainage system because it just backs everything up.”
With a forecast of heavy rain and leaf debris clogging the system, Evans wants the beaver dams removed before they cause serious flooding.
A licensed trapper has been called in to trap the semi-aquatic rodents.
“Discouragement is our first line of defence,” says Evans. “We hope they get tired of being here and go to Maple Ridge.”
The city has been criticized for using trappers to rid the drainage system of beavers.
Animal Welfare Institute says a preferred option and a better long-term solution for dealing with beaver and human conflicts is to work with existing beaver in the habitat.
Beaver pipes can be installed in dams to control flooding, while road flooding can be controlled with Beaver Bafflers. There are several humane alternatives to protecting trees from beavers, including surrounding trees with cylindrical cages, coating them with a sand/paint mixture, spraying them with repellents and/or placing low fences around them.